Toronto, 19 April 2010: Canada's Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA Canada)expressed dismay and vehement opposition to a plan floated by the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO) to register individual travel counsellors and outside sales representatives. TICO intends to raise this possibility and seeks registrant input at its upcoming town hall meetings.

"If travel agencies felt that TICO was 'empire building' with its recent education requirement which foists questionably-valuable exams on travel counsellors in Ontario, this individual registration proposal proves, without doubt, that TICO is poised to truly exceed its mandate with nothing more than a money-grab and over-regulation in the province", said ARTA Canada President Bruce Bishins, CTC.

ARTA Canada cannot fathom any need to register individuals, which would be the first such endeavor anywhere, and which smacks of a broad-based attempt to license the travel agent profession. One can only surmise that registration of individuals would simply be the first step, with additional licensing, education, and other competency requirements following soon thereafter. When will it end?

"Not only does this proposal lack any value and benefit for the industry and consumers, it could only result in additional costs and barriers to the profession itself. It's bad enough that the education requirement created a huge windfall to CITC of hundreds of thousands of dollars, monies that should have been earned by TICO itself to offset the annual renewal fees paid by registrants, this ill-conceived plan will likely create yet another cash cow for TICO and prop-up CITC yet again as it will surely be brought into the mix", added Bishins.

ARTA Canada encourages registrants to attend the TICO town hall meetings and voice their opposition to any individual registration plan. A list of currently scheduled town hall meetings and the agenda of topics to be discussed is available at:

ARTA Canada is the largest non-profit federally incorporated professional association of travel retailers in Canada, the members of which consist exclusively of travel agencies and travel agents. In addition to advocating fair and equitable treatment of travel consumers, ARTA Canada represents the commercial and strategic interests of its member travel agencies and travel agents in a variety of national and provincial domains including regulatory and legislative matters, automation, technology, sales and marketing, and distribution.

ARTA Canada is the strategic partner in Canada of the U.S.-based Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA). ARTA Canada is the Canadian member of UFTAA, the United Federation of Travel Agents' Associations. To join ARTA Canada, complete details and online membership application and secure payment are available on the ARTA Canada web site at www.artacanada.ca/join.